AirSea Battle: An Exchange Amongst Friends

One of the real benefits of my ongoing fellowship at Pacific Forum CSIS is the time I have been able to spend building personal relationships and discussing events of the day with the international cast of Fellows in our office. In particular, we have had the unique opportunity to be joined by Senior Colonel Gaoyue Fan of the People's Liberation Army. Senior Colonel Fan joined the PLA in 1970 and has worked at the PLA Academy of Military Science since 1970 where his research focuses on American joint warfare and military strategy.

Over the course of the past two months my discussion with Sr. Col. Fan have focused on US-China strategic relations and, in particular, the motivations and implication behind America's development of an AirSea Battle doctrine. About a month ago the Colonel and I decided we should take up the challenge of putting our thoughts to paper in an iterated exchange of ideas and queries for one another. What followed was a brief 2,000 word debate that we published as a PacNet for Pacific Forum this afternoon. While our essay displays our clear divergence of perspectives, I am grateful for the personal relationship I have been able to build with Sr. Col. Fan in recent months and look forward to continuing our frank engagements in the future.

"AirSea Battle: An Exchange" by Eric Sayers and Gaoyue Fan